Thursday, January 17, 2013

"...Washington has decided, moreover, that the best course of action in the aftermath of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s possible fall would be to get the nerve agents out of the country as quickly as possible, so it’s begun discussions not only with Jordan and Turkey, but also with Iraq and Russia to chart the potential withdrawal of the arsenal and its destruction elsewhere....The Obama administration regards using allied forces from Syria’s periphery as the most likely “first responders” to a weapons-of-mass-destruction emergency as a way to avoid putting U.S. troops in the region if the special Syrian military forces now safeguarding the weapons leave their posts. A Syrian withdrawal otherwise might render the weapons vulnerable to capture and use by Hezbollah or other anti-U.S. or anti-Israeli militant groups, U.S. officials fear..."